The Lunar Effect Demo
A downloadable demo for Windows
The Lunar Effect is a psychological horror puzzle game where every action is questioned, every clue is vital, and every second is precious. Inspired by the art styles of Resident Evil and Silent Hill, The Lunar Effect takes its protagonist on a dark and unfamiliar path. Awakening in a strange mansion, he must discover the fate of its inhabitants and find a way out. But be warned- all is not as it seems.
Explore and interact with the environment to discover your path to freedom. Find your salvation by scouring every inch of the mysterious mansion. With each clue unearthed, the hour of your escape- or demise- draws nearer.
Think outside the box with a host of puzzles and challenges, both within the game and beyond. It will take every ounce of your creative thinking and urgency to make it out with your life.
Be wary; time is fleeting, and to drag one’s feet is to anger the gods. You must make haste to escape an unknown fate and survive your trials. You must escape the Lunar Effect.
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Website: The-Lunar-Effect.com
Download
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Development log
- Strange doll bug 1.1.2Mar 30, 2021
Comments
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Does it matter which controller?
Any news about game outside of twitter?
Creepy game, good work!
Amazing, the demo is so good! The gameplay is really smooth, loved how seamless the exploration > getting items > solving puzzles interactions were. I got the best feels from Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Wishlisted, can't wait for full release!
A fantastic demo. I'll definitely get this when the full game comes out. Fair warning to anyone trying to record this using OBS to put on YouTube: The default "Fullscreen" setting caused my entire recording to be just of the top left corner of the screen, zoomed in, invalidating all my footage. Switching to "Borderless Fullscreen" in the settings seems to fix this.
Muy buena demo, espero verlo acabado.
REALLY ENJOYED this game. The demo ia awesome! I am gonna play as soon as it comes out! A lot of old school horror game vibes.
Can't wait to see the full game!!
I loved this so much!!
By far this is the most interesting PS 1 style game that I have ever played! I might just buy it when it comes out!
The puzzles are great, the graphics and storytelling is great. I love resident evil so this was pretty nice.
I caught myself clicking on everything and trying to interact, will the shining item system be added?
Sometimes i can hardly see symbols at ridles which i have to use(Means keyboard button)
The game looks great and I will definitely continue to watch it. Iam following and rating 5/5
Thank you so much, we are so glad you enjoyed it!
We do have plans about creating an optional item/interact shine so don't worry about that. Also we know that there are some places where it the interact button icons are hard to read so that is also something we have thought about how we will fix going forward into the full game.
I'm looking forward to trying this (also wishlisted on Steam). I'm curious, is there are any plans for a Linux version?
Thank you for the wishlist! At the moment unfortuntely no. We don't really have the native tools nor time to bugtest everything again, especially since none of us run linux. Not to mention Unreal has pretty shaky at best Linux support so we don't want to put something out there that doesn't work half the time. We will keep an open mind about it though because it would be great to be able to at the same time but don't get excited haha
Thanks for explaining that
Will this work with an SNES style gamepad? There are enough buttons, but sometimes it's hit and miss.
Hmm possibly, Unreal works with a XInput system that windows natively has to recognise xbox controllers, so if you have an XInput wrapper that can make it think it's a xbox controller then you should be able to do it
I loved the demo, going to add it on my Steam wishlist!! W8ing for the full game :)
Thank you! We look forward to bring you the full game 😀
Unfortuntely this sounds more like a problem with your computer so I don't think I can help. I hope you manage to find a fix regardless!
These days, "tank controls" feel weird to me but I really really enjoyed this demo. I have definitely added the game to my Steam wishlist! I am looking forward to playing the full game
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wishlist too 🙏
I really liked this demo, but I found a softlock when inspecting something in the kid's room (where it says there's nothing but books and a teddy or something like that). Using the latest version posted as of this (1.1.5).
Also, a suggestion, it would be great if the game had a quick turn button, like in the Resident Evil games it's modeled after. Or at the very least make the interaction hotspots for events approachable from the sides, rather than having to be perfectly in front of it.
Hmm thanks for letting us know! I have had a look through and have not been able to replicate it but I will keep looking 👍
Thank you for the suggestion, we do actually have plans for this but I will also make sure to think about expanding the interaction radius's too
I love this demo! The puzzles were intriguing, fun, and challenged me at times! The atmosphere reminded me of Resident Evil, but that's not a bad thing at all. I can't wait for the full release!
Thanks for the play, Glad you enjoyed it!
esta super genial me encanta la estetica de juego es como retro pero sin saturarlo demaciado el ambiene tambien esta muy bien logrado....me encanto super bien :D
Thank you! Very glad you liked it (or as google translate has lead me to believe 😅)
Love love LOVE this demo! can't wait to see a full release. Nice amount of atmosphere and tension. The writing was well done, setting the scene well, which also paired well with the beautifully crafted environments. The controls felt fine, but I agree with Ucial's comment, there needs to be a default walk state with a run button, small niggle, but aside that, a truly interesting demo. keep up the good work!
Thank you for the kind words! Yeah I think we felt players would want to just run by default but a few people have mentioned this so we definitely have plans to add this to the full game 😀
I LOVE the PS1 vibe here! Looks amazing! Will play today for sure. What program did you use to make this game? Unity?
Thank you! We used Unreal to make this actually 😁
Got it. Thanks.
Love the throwback style, graphics and controls.
In terms of critical feedback, I would say:
-the music needs to be less generic
-have movement to a standard walk with a run button
-needs clunky combat
Otherwise, great, keep it up ;)
Made a video
Thank you for playing! I hope you enjoyed it, sorry you seemed to get lag problems.
Neat game thanks. Make me remember when I was young with Alone in the Dark.
Thank you! I am glad we could take you back 😁
Tried out the demo, nice game.
Thanks for playing! Definitely enjoyed your playthrough. Unfortuntely Unreal is really picky when it comes to controllers so it is only able to pick up either xbox controllers or PS4 (and other controllers) with a XInput wrapper like DS4windows.
Really glad you enjoyed it though and learnt to love the pencil 😁
There is not unfortuntely, we want to look into localisation for the full game but for the demo we did not have the time nor budget
This was absolutely fantastic. It really scratched that classic horror itch, you nailed the aesthetic and atmosphere perfectly! It feels like the perfect blend of Silent Hill and RE, and I really enjoy the more puzzle oriented approach. It's nice being able to walk into the halls without worrying about constantly dodging enemies while I solve a puzzle! Can't wait to see the full release for this, I'll definitely play the whole game!
Thank you for playing! I enjoyed your playthrough, it was really nice to see you really get what we were going for, so thank you for the kind words!
Also we refused to put Saturn devouring his son in the game considering the trope at this point haha I decided to put just about every other Goya painting instead 😁
Haha, that's a good reason to leave it out! The painting is pretty much a meme at this point. Fantastic work!
very good game. It's a bit tricky to move in the beginning, but the level of difficulty is perfect, just enough tou puzzle you without frustrating you. I really enjoyed !
Thank you! Tank controls can get a moment to get used to but once you do it's all good 😁
Really nostalgic! Really enjoyed it, Looking forward to the full game! :D
Thanks for the play! So glad you enjoyed it
i really liked the concept and story plot of this game. The game being a horror game while still having mind puzzles to solve the quests really keeps the player intrigued. The environmental setting is perfect and the sound of the game are spot on for making different situation feel differently, they make the player be on edge for what is about to come. What i didnt like though was the control type. even though the game was designed for windows or a pc platoform, it was designed keeping the controller in mind. which i felt was something which can be imporved. also the camera angles for the game and the axis of the character needs improvement. The character feels too stubborn to move around. and because of the frequewntly changing camera angles it can become quite difficult to move in the direction u want to. The graphics could obviously use a lift tho these ones get the job done just fine too. In all a great concept with a great stroyline to keep a person wanting for more. A little more efforts on execution can help this turn into a great game
Aviral Srivastava (Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal- CSE Specialization in Gaming Technology)
Now first of all I will say that controller is a focus for me, that is how you played these games back in the day and I think it's important to the feel to maintain this so this is not something I plan to change. Are we intending on improving the keyboard experience on the other hand? Yes. The big planned improvement in that regard is remappable keys but aside from that I am not sure what else to do.
By the sound of it, you're not very used to tank controls which are a necessity of fixed camera angles or even more control issues arise (not even mentioning the authenticness of such controls) We do plan to look into camera-based movement but such a task was far too large to fit into the demo, so that should be able to help those who are not used to tank controls.
"The graphics could obviously use a lift" I am not really sure what you mean by this. If you mean the UI elements then true, I am happy with the inventory menu but some of the other elements could do with some more work. If you just mean the general visual style of the game... I don't know what to tell you, this is a retro 3D game, this is what you are going to get 😂 There is an option to turn off pixelisation if that is what you want but that is all you're going to get in that regard.
I am not sure I appreciate the implication you have that this was created with a lack of effort but I will give you the benefit of the doubt in this due to English clearly being a second language here. I can tell you that we have put in all of our effort in this demo but time constraints are a limiter. As we move towards full release now, we will be able to put in all our effort and the benefit of time to make this the best game it can be.
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Looking forward to the full game.
The visuals and sounds were nice and I liked the atmosphere. Puzzles were good, not too easy but not too hard either. I just wish there was more of this T_T Got to just be patient and wait for the whole game.
Overall great experience, totally recommend to try it if you haven't!
Thank you for playing! Really glad you enjoyed it and we are looking forward to bringing you the full game!
The game's great and it really does feel like the game just came out from the 1990s. I kinda wish the monster's presence was a bit more pronounce. But otherwise, great demo.
Here's my channel for other games I have played. http://www.youtube.com/c/Levont
Thank you for playing! Don't worry, there is plenty more to come with that in the full game.
What a great game!
Thanks so much 🙏
Just played the demo through. It's got great visuals!
Perhaps the advice is premature since it's just a demo, but for pacing, it may be advisable to have a longer lead-up to the starting point of the game to build up the tension a bit more.
Great job!
Thank you! Don't worry, the demo is paced for the demo. Expect things to be paced and play different from this in the opening of the full game
Hello, I played this game and I really enjoyed it, looking forward to the full game, great job :)
Thanks for playing! Happy that you enjoyed it. Look forward to bringing you the full game!
Confession: I don’t really play and/or enjoy these types of games but maybe you converted me because I had way more fun than I thought I would and can’t wait for the final game. This was a fantastic demo, it build up tension, had some fun puzzles to get used to the gameplay and I gotta say, it looks lovely. Also loved the slightly creepier soundtrack with every plot beat, I did not know what was coming but I was dreading it!
Thank you so much! Glad that we managed to convert you haha Thanks for playing.